Spot the Frippet: bisque.

People come from all over the world to play in The World Den, and sometimes it's difficult to find a word that's suitable whether you're in the scorching summer of Sydney or the windy winter of Wisconsin.

But here's one: bisque.

Bisque can be a warming shellfish soup made extra delicious with wine and cream (oh rats, I'm getting hungry, and it's at least nine hours until dinner).


Photo: French Recipes

If, however, the sun is blazing down and the last thing you need is a bowl of steaming soup, then you can head outdoors to play tennis, croquet or golf:

In those sports a bisque is a free point, stroke, or go given to a weak player. It can usually be taken whenever things are looking particularly hopeless, too.

But there's no need to despair even if you're somewhere warm but raining, because there's always the bisque which is either a pink or yellowish tan colour, or fired but unglazed porcelain or earthenware. That sort of bisque is used a lot for china dolls.

So there we are. Something that unites the world in a happy diversity.

And how many of those can you find about the place?

Spot the Frippet: bisque. The soup word is French, It may be named after the Bay of Biscay, but the shellfish are certainly bis cuites - twice cooked - (fried, then simmered) so it might be something to do with that. The free stroke for incompetents is French, too, and probably started out as a croquet term. The colour and ceramic meanings are a shortened form of biscuit.